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2026 resume statistics

The State of Resumes: 2026 Resume Statistics

We analysed 154,099 successful Pika ATS diagnostic scans, May 2026 to September 2026. 89.1% scored below Pika's 70/100 ATS-ready threshold. Repeat scans may be included, so this is not a count of unique people or documents.

Data updated Sep 15, 2026. Methodology reviewed Sep 12, 2026.

ATS score benchmarksKey resume statisticsPika diagnostic flagsMethodologyResearch kit
60.3/100
Average ATS score
Median 62
89.1%
Below Pika's 70 threshold
Not an employer rejection rate
0.7%
Checked against a job description
Avg keyword match 65/100

Live score benchmarks

What is a good ATS score?

On Pika Resume's current diagnostic rubric, 70/100 or higher is labelled ATS-ready. The current average is 60.3/100 and the median is 62/100 across 154,099 successful Pika ATS diagnostic scans. This is Pika's product threshold, not a universal employer ATS score or hiring prediction.

70/100

ATS-ready threshold

60.3/100

Average ATS score

62/100

Median ATS score

71/100

Top-10% benchmark

Is a 76 ATS score good?

On Pika's current scale, 76/100 is 6 points above the 70-point ATS-ready threshold. It also meets the current top-10% benchmark of 71/100. That makes 76 a good diagnostic score on Pika's scale, but it is not a universal score from an employer ATS.

Check with the free ATS resume checkerUnderstand what an ATS score means

What the data actually says

Three findings within Pika's eligible diagnostic-scan sample.

3.5%

Formatting is a less common outright Pika flag

3.5% of 9,971 eligible scans fail formatting and parsing outright; 78.4% receive a warning. Compare all eight Pika checks in the section profile below.

35.6%

Impact, Grammar & Consistency is flagged most often by Pika

It is the most common outright Pika diagnostic flag among 9,993 eligible successful scans, about 10x more often than formatting.

<0.1%

Excellent Pika scores are rare in this sample

Only <0.1% of scans — 38 successful scans — scored 85 or higher. 89.1% fall below the ATS-ready line. The section breakdown shows where improvement is concentrated.

2.4 of 8

Checks passed in Pika's recent profile sample

Across the most recent 5,190 eligible successful scans, each scanned resume runs the same 8 Pika checks. The average clears 2.4 without a warning or failure, and 0% pass all 8. This profile is capped at 10,000 scans.

What are the most common ATS resume failures?

In Pika Resume's current profile sample, Impact, Grammar & Consistency is the most common outright Pika diagnostic flag: 35.6% of 9,993 eligible successful scans fail the check and 63.8% receive a warning. These are Pika rubric results, not employer rejection reasons.

Impact, Grammar & Consistency35.6% Pika fail
Work Experience9.7% Pika fail
Projects, Certifications & Achievements7.1% Pika fail
Skills & Keywords5.6% Pika fail
Format & ATS Parsing3.5% Pika fail
Section Structure1.7% Pika fail
Contact & Personal Details0.9% Pika fail
Education0.2% Pika fail
PassWarningFail

Where would your resume land?

Impact, Grammar & Consistency is Pika's most frequent outright flag in this sample. See your score across all eight sections in about 30 seconds, free.

Run the free ATS checker

How successful scans grade out on Pika's rubric

Excellent (85+)
0%
Good (70-84)
10.9%
Needs work (55-69)
73%
Poor (under 55)
16.1%

Score distribution

Where successful scans land on Pika's diagnostic scale. Zero-score results are excluded from this study, so the first published band begins at 1.

3.6%
12.5%
73%
10.9%
0%
1-39
40-54
55-69
70-84
85-100

Pika score percentile cutoffs

The 90th-percentile benchmark is 71 on Pika's scale. Here are the cutoffs across 154,099 successful scans; they are not employer rankings.

Top 10%
score 71 or higher
Top 25%
score 64 or higher
Median resume
scores 62
Bottom 25%
score 57 or lower
Bottom 10%
score 52 or lower

Original data

Skills most often missing from resumes

When a resume is checked against a specific job description, the average keyword match is 65/100. Each term below is counted once per resume and divided by the full sample of 1,098 JD-matched scans.

Missing skill termScansShare
Unit Testing24922.7%
Docker24121.9%
CI/CD22020%
Cloud Computing21519.6%
Agile20919%
AWS19717.9%
Git15414%
Technical Documentation15013.7%
Kubernetes14713.4%
System Design14012.8%

This is a self-selected sample of Pika ATS checks with a supplied job description. It measures terms the submitted job descriptions requested but the scanned resume omitted. A term is counted at most once in each scan; this is not a ranking of skills across the entire labour market.

The study, month by month

Successful scans completed each month, with the scan-time average Pika score once the sample is large enough to report. The current month is still filling in. Historical scores are not version-normalised, so this is product telemetry, not evidence of labour-market change.

111
119
33,508
76,550
43,811
May 2026
avg 68.5
Jun 2026
avg 69.6
Jul 2026
avg 61.5
Aug 2026
avg 59.7
Sep 2026 (so far)
avg 60.5

Quarterly ATS benchmark

Successful scan volume, scan-time average Pika score, and the share at or above Pika's threshold. In-progress quarters are labelled “so far”. Historical scores are not version-normalised, so quarters are product telemetry and are not comparable evidence of labour-market change.

2026-Q2

Complete
Successful scans
230
Average ATS score
69/100
At or above Pika threshold
43.5%

2026-Q3

So far
Successful scans
153,869
Average ATS score
60.3/100
At or above Pika threshold
10.9%

Key resume statistics for 2026

Each figure below is a complete, self-contained finding. Quote any of them with attribution and a link to this page.

  • Across 154,099 successful Pika ATS diagnostic scans between May 2026 and September 2026, the average Pika score is 60.3/100 and the median is 62/100.
  • 89.1% of successful scans score below 70/100, the threshold Pika Resume labels ATS-ready. This is not an employer screening or rejection rate.
  • In the recent profile sample, Impact, Grammar & Consistency is Pika's most frequent outright flag: 35.6% of 9,993 eligible successful scans fail that check and another 63.8% receive a warning.
  • Formatting and parsing fail outright in 3.5% of 9,971 eligible scans; 78.4% receive a warning. Other Pika checks produce more outright diagnostic flags. These are not employer rejection outcomes.
  • <0.1% of successful scans — 38 scans — earn an "excellent" score of 85 or higher from Pika's diagnostic.
  • Among resumes checked against a specific job description, the average keyword match score is 65/100.
  • The most frequently missing skill term is Unit Testing: it is absent from 249 of 1,098 successful JD-matched scans (22.7%).
  • On Pika's scan distribution, the 90th-percentile benchmark is 71; the top quarter starts at 64, and the median is 62. These are not employer rankings.
  • In 5,190 recent eligible successful scans, the scanned resume cleanly passes an average of 2.4 of 8 Pika checks;0% pass all 8 without a warning or failure.

Pika result rates by scanned resume section

Resume sectionPassWarningFailAvg score
Impact, Grammar & Consistency0.6%63.8%35.6%57.1/100
Work Experience0.8%89.5%9.7%60.8/100
Projects, Certifications & Achievements3.4%89.4%7.1%67.4/100
Skills & Keywords7.4%87.1%5.6%70.4/100
Format & ATS Parsing18.1%78.4%3.5%66.6/100
Section Structure44.2%54.1%1.7%76.2/100
Contact & Personal Details84.6%14.5%0.9%95.4/100
Education67.5%32.3%0.2%80.9/100

Common questions about resume and ATS statistics

What share of Pika ATS diagnostic scans score below Pika's threshold?

In Pika Resume's ongoing study of 154,099 successful diagnostic scans, 89.1% score below Pika's 70/100 ATS-ready threshold. That is a Pika product measure, not an employer screening or rejection rate.

What is the average ATS score of a resume?

Across 154,099 successful Pika ATS diagnostic scans, the average Pika score is 60.3/100 and the median is 62. Pika labels scores of 70 and above ATS-ready under its current rubric; employer systems do not share one universal score.

Is formatting Pika's most common diagnostic failure?

No. Formatting and parsing fail outright in 3.5% of 9,971 eligible successful scans in Pika's recent profile sample, while 78.4% receive a warning. Other Pika checks produce more outright flags; this study does not observe employer rejection decisions.

What ATS score puts a resume in the top 10%?

Within 154,099 successful Pika ATS diagnostic scans, a score of 71 or higher is at or above the current 90th-percentile benchmark. The top quarter starts at 64, and the scan-level median is 62. These are Pika score percentiles, not employer rankings.

How many ATS checks does the average resume pass?

In Pika's most-recent eligible profile sample of 5,190 successful scans, the scanned resume cleanly passes an average of 2.4 of 8 Pika checks. 0% pass all 8 without a Pika warning or failure.

What skills are most often missing from resumes?

Among 1,098 successful Pika scans with a job description, Unit Testing is the most frequently missing skill term in the current dataset. It is absent from 249 scans, or 22.7% of the JD-matched sample. This self-selected sample is not the skill mix of the whole labour market.

Methodology

These figures are computed from 154,099 successful Pika ATS diagnostic scans, May 2026 to September 2026. One successful scan—not one unique person, document, application, or hiring outcome—is the unit of analysis. Repeat scans and document or job-description variants may be counted again.

A successful scan is an eligible completed Pika diagnostic result with a positive 1–100 score that is neither deleted nor watermarked; zero-score and out-of-range results are excluded. A scan at 70 or above is labelled ATS-ready under Pika's rubric, but that threshold is not universal to employer systems.

Headline scores, distributions, and time series use all eligible successful scans. Section-failure and check-profile metrics use the most recent eligible successful scans, capped at 10,000; each published sample size is its denominator. All numbers are aggregate. Rates, averages, and profile cuts below 30 are withheld; time-series scan-volume counts may remain visible below that floor. No resume content, file, or personal information is published. The checks-passed profile further requires all eight canonical Pika checks.

The scans are self-selected and may include repeats, so this dataset is not representative of every applicant, employer, or ATS. Pika's scores are product diagnostics—not employer screening decisions—and do not predict callbacks, interviews, or hiring outcomes. Scores reflect the Pika rubric in use when each scan ran. Until scoring versions are stored with historical results, score trends are product telemetry and must not be treated as comparable evidence of labour-market change.

Missing-skill frequencies use only scans with a supplied job description and keyword score. A term is counted at most once per scan, then divided by all 1,098 eligible JD-matched scans. Quarterly cards mark the current quarter as incomplete; only completed quarters have a closed scan count, but historical score levels remain unversioned telemetry.

Methodology last reviewed Sep 12, 2026. Read the full methodology and limitations.

Research and media kit

Use the data, chart, or press brief

Every asset below comes from the same validated aggregate snapshot used on this page. No resume text, uploaded file, or personal information is included. Cite Pika Resume and link to this study when you publish a figure.

Aggregate dataset (CSV)Tidy rows for spreadsheets, analysis, and charts.Aggregate dataset (JSON)Structured snapshot for data tools and AI systems.ATS score chart (SVG)Publication-ready chart with source and update date.Media brief (TXT)Headline findings, boundaries, citation, and contact.

Recommended citation

Pika Resume. “Resume Statistics & ATS Score Benchmarks 2026: The State of Resumes.” Updated Sep 15, 2026. Aggregate dataset of 154,099 successful Pika ATS diagnostic scans, May 2026–September 2026. https://pikaresume.com/state-of-resumes

First published 10 June 2026. Methodology reviewed Sep 12, 2026. Self-selected successful Pika ATS diagnostic scans; repeat scans and variants may be included, so counts are not unique people, documents, or applications. The data is not representative of every applicant, employer, or ATS. For a specific aggregate cut, contact support@pikaresume.com. Read the full research methodology.

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